SECOND-BEST BAND NAME (2001)

Har Mar Superstar

Finding the right band name is as difficult as finding the right bandmates. The perfect moniker should be catchy, memorable, unique, easy to pronounce. In short, it must distill the band's essence down to a few syllables. If nailing these elements constitutes success, then Har Mar Superstar is a smash. In three rhyming words, the band (actually a pseudonym for Sean Tillmann) brands itself as a St. Paul resident, a purveyor of the lowbrow, obsessed with the past, and damn proud of it. Like its namesake, the relentlessly generic Har Mar Mall shopping center in Roseville, the band is trapped in the 1970s, as its R&B-inspired grooves attest. Unlike the mall, the band is set to take off way beyond Minnesota, as Dutch, Italian, and Portuguese fan sites attest. Superstar, indeed.